Impact of Malocclusion on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life of 8-12 Years Old Schoolchildren in Southern Brazil.

The aim of this study was to estimate the impact of malocclusion on the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of schoolchildren aged 8-12 years old in Southern Brazil. A two-stage cluster procedure was used to select 1,199 children in 20 public and private schools in Pelotas/Brazil. Cross-sectional data was collected, consisting of a socioeconomic questionnaire to parents, children's interview and clinical oral examination. The clinical variables were obtained from clinical examination, and the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) was assessed during children's interview. To measure malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need the Dental Aesthetic Index was used. For data analysis multiple Poisson regression models estimating the rate ratios (RR) and their respective confidence intervals (95%CI) were used. Among 1,206 participants, 789 were aged 8-10 years and 417 between 11-12 years. The orthodontic treatment need was higher among the younger children (44.6%) than in the older ones (35.0%) (p value </=0.05). There was a significant association in the CPQ social and emotional domains with malocclusion in the older schoolchildren. In the adjusted analysis (for socioeconomics and clinical variables) the effect of very severe malocclusion on OHRQoL was confirmed in both 8-10 and 11-12 age groups (RR(95%CI) of 1.24(1.02;1.51) and 1.28(1.01;1.62), respectively). The findings demonstrated that children with very severe malocclusion experienced greater negative impact on OHRQoL compared to those with mild or no malocclusion. The results suggest that malocclusion impacts the quality of life. The higher impact occurs in the social and emotional well-being domains.